Somehow my husband and I thought Monday would be a perfect day for a day hike up Mt. Whitney…. as if this month isn’t busy enough prepping for our upcoming 4th of July 5K! I took out a pair of the Brooks Pure Grit minimalist trail running shoes and felt light on my feet and had more than enough grip for the rocky conditions!
The morning started with a 3:30am wakeup call (we stayed at the Best Western instead of camping out… weak, I know). I found it refreshing to hear birds chirping when we got up… only to discover that what we heard chirping were actually bats right outside our door. We waited and waited for them to go away and about an hour later they stopped. As soon as we opened the door to leave we saw one fly away from in front of our room and into the parking lot. We de-beared our car and tossed some unneeded jelly beans and sunflower seeds and carried the rest with us. The sad thing is, we packed so much food and hardly touched any of it the entire time (see picture below). Not exactly a diet of champions, but it made for some tasty treats along the way.
My husband has made it up in years past and I must say that I felt surprisingly great for a first time attempt and a day hike at that! Unfortunately though, due to our slow ascent, we only make it a little over 9 miles up and 9 miles back… so a few miles short of reaching the peak. We packed a tiny flashlight and didn’t want to risk coming down the mountain in the dark. Rest assured though, we will be back! I wore my Garmin Forerunner 210 for the ride up but since there is only an 8 hour gps battery life I could only record the descent down the mountain, but if your curious about elevation changes, take a look at the link below!
